Canine carousel carver has eye, ear for detail

PET TALES

Published 4:00 am, Monday, March 1, 2010

Artist Tim Racer insists on meeting every dog before he re-creates them as wooden sculptures, often flying across the country to take exact measurements.

Artist Tim Racer insists on meeting every dog before he re-creates them as wooden sculptures, often flying across the country to take exact measurements.

Photo: Anne Truitt

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Sculptor Tim Racer sits in his studio in Oakland, Calif. on Monday, March 16, 2009

Sculptor Tim Racer sits in his studio in Oakland, Calif. on Monday, March 16, 2009

Photo: Mark Costantini, The Chronicle

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A work-in-progress dog's head sculpture by sculptor Tim Racer sits in Racer's studio in Oakland, Calif. on Monday, March 16, 2009.

A work-in-progress dog's head sculpture by sculptor Tim Racer sits in Racer's studio in Oakland, Calif. on Monday, March 16, 2009.

Photo: Mark Costantini, The Chronicle

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Cali the dog, as a carousel animal.

Cali the dog, as a carousel animal.

Photo: Tim Racer

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A pet and his wooden likeness, as fashioned by Tim Racer.

A pet and his wooden likeness, as fashioned by Tim Racer.

Photo: Mark Costantini, SF Chronicle

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Chicken detail on Sataf carousel

Chicken detail on Sataf carousel

Photo: Anne Truitt

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A work-in-progress dog's head sculpture by sculptor Tim Racer is sniffed by Racer's dog, Honkey Tonk in Racer's studio in Oakland, Calif. on Monday, March 16, 2009.

A work-in-progress dog's head sculpture by sculptor Tim Racer is sniffed by Racer's dog, Honkey Tonk in Racer's studio in Oakland, Calif. on Monday, March 16, 2009.

Photo: Mark Costantini, The Chronicle

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Canine carousel carver has eye, ear for detail

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Tim Racer carefully lays out hundreds of basenji pictures in his studio: the dog in profile, head on, running and playing in a park. He studies each one for clues that will be invaluable when he puts his scalpel to a block of basswood to create a sculpted likeness in the style of a carousel or rocking horse.

"This can't just look like a dog; it has to look like their dog," he says in his Oakland studio. "That adds a crucial amount to the time it requires to complete these, to get these dogs looking, you know, not just alive and animated with a beautiful color scheme, but like their dog."

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It can take as many as 700 hours to complete a commissioned piece, each of which costs $15,000 to $70,000, depending on the size. Pro athletes, power attorneys and pet lovers of all stripes have sought him out to memorialize their furry friends.

Racer insists on meeting every dog before he re-creates their likeness, often flying across the country to take exact measures of the dog with calipers to ensure a perfect replication.

His precision also includes following turn-of-the-century carousel traditions, down to the "trappings" - the artistic flourishes carousel carvers added to distinguish their horses from others.

For example, Racer's creation of Sataf, an Australian shepherd mix who was adopted by Jane Gottesman of Berkeley, includes several symbolic references.

Gottesman met Sataf at a bus stop in Jerusalem. When her bus arrived, he chased the bus to the next stop. She asked the driver if she could bring the dog on, and he said, "One shekel." She ended up flying the dog home with her, where he lived with her and her husband, Geoffrey Biddle, for 13 years.

On Racer's carving, a satchel attached to Sataf's saddle holds a mouse looking at a heads-up shekel, which features the number 1. The work actually features many shekels, most tails up, all around his girth strap. Other trappings include a rooster, a skunk and a porcupine.

"He was quite a hunter, and those were his quarry," Racer says. "The porcupine is the only one who got away, with many quills in Sataf's head and face."

Racer's extensive knowledge about this Victorian art comes from spending seven years in the '90s working on antique carousel animals - starting out as an apprentice to Pam Hessey of Martinez, who is a renowned carousel restoration expert. He and Hessey were on the team that brought the San Francisco Zoo's merry-go-round back to life. He's also done maintenance on the Playland-at-the-Beach carousel now at Yerba Buena Gardens, and the merry-go-rounds at Golden Gate Park and Tilden Park.

He also gives lectures about his unusual art form. After one such presentation at the 2002 Carousel West Conference in Pacific Grove, Linda Allen, a Seattle carousel collector, and her husband, Tom, hit him up for his first commission: They wanted to pay him to carve Nikki, the family border collie-malamute mix, as a present for their grown daughter.

While working on his Nikki carving in his garage, a woman asked him what he was doing. She was a window dresser working for a store on Fourth Street in Berkeley.

"I hate the word 'fate,' but it was a life-changing moment," Racer says.

She and Racer created a carnival-themed window. Within 24 hours, Racer got a call from the editor of Bark magazine, the hip dog lover's bible, wanting to showcase his work. Ever since that piece appeared, he's had a waiting list for dog carousel clients.

In 2008, Racer and Reynold's compassion for dogs landed them in another national magazine, Sports Illustrated, for rescuing several of the dogs that had been in NFL player Michael Vick's dogfighting ring.

A decade ago Racer and his wife, Donna Reynolds, co-founded a rescue group called Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pit Bulls, a.k.a. BAD RAP, with Susi Ming-Strohl and a handful of others. Sally, one of his four dogs, was the inspiration for his first carving and continues to be a loyal supervisor on all his projects.

Last year, Racer and Reynolds moved to a larger hilltop home where they can care for more rescued animals (they typically care for a half dozen or so at a time) and dedicate more space to the carving studio so he can continue to accept as many commissions as he can.

"People who love their dogs so much they want to spend money on a carving are usually the kind of people I want to get to know better," he says.